Sliping Away
by ubyrai
Summary: She bent her head down and rested it on something warm. Her silent tears dripped down the back of his hand and disappeared into the disinfectant smelling hospital sheets. May contain spoilers. T to be safe.


**Thanks to everyone who has read and reviewed my other stories. :D**

**I really should lay off the EdXWin pairing...but i can't help it. Here is another one.**

**It's kind of set in both FMA and FMA:B...like there are traits of both in there. **

**I don't own anything.**

"When will he wake up?" Alphonse asked the doctor worriedly.

"It can't be certain. He is not in a very good condition at the moment. Were not even sure he will wake up at all. All we can do is wait and see what happens." The doctor told Al as he walked out the door of Ed's room in Central hospital.

Al slunk back down into the old plastic hospital chair next to Ed's bed.

"It's all my fault." Al mumbled into his metal hands. "I should have protected him better...this wouldn't have happened...he wouldn't be hurt."

* * *

They were on the train back to Resembool, Edward had been careless again and a screw fell out of his automail arm and was lost. They needed a replacement one.

"Brother, something's not right." Al whispered to Ed.

Ed looked over the back of the wooden train seat and down the carriage. Sitting in the wooden chair closest to the door to the engine room was Envy the homunculus. He looked at Ed and gave the boy the creepiest smile he could.

"Shit." Ed exclaimed sliding back into his seat.

"What?" Al asked "Who is it?"

"Its Envy." Ed sighed. "Damn why is he here? Oh well I guess where going to have to get off at the next stop Al...Let's just hope he doesn't follow us...If not, were going to have to give him an arse whopping."

"But your arm!" Al reminded his forgetful brother.

"Oh...right..." Ed sighed. "This is horrible timing. Damn it Envy."

The train crawled to a stop and Ed and Al got off. Sure enough, Envy followed.

They walked out of the station and around into a small dark alley way with Envy in tow.

Finally Ed turned around and faced him.

"What do you want Envy! I'm not in the mood for your shit today." Ed yelled

"I was bored...so I wanted to give you another go at beating me...might sharpen up my skills...also i hate you and any opportunity for me to kill you is one to take...and seeming your injured today might be a good day for it, don't you think shorty?" The homunculus teased.

"HOW DARE YOU CALL ME PIPSQUEAK!" Ed yelled, over - exaggerating, clapping his flesh hand together with his limp automail hand in the process.

Ed touched the ground and transmuted a long sword from the concrete.

"Oh please that's original" Envy said sarcastically.

"Shut Up!" Ed exclaimed lunging at him.

The homunculus dodged the sword multiple times, not obtaining a single graze. They fought for a while, Al waiting in the background until he was needed.

Finally Envy tripped and fell, Ed standing over him ready to strike. But before he could, the homunculus transformed into a little girl with long brown hair.

"N-Nina?" Ed mumbled.

The little girl smiled "Foolish humans" she laughed.

In less than a second Envy's immortal hand plunged all the way through Ed's stomach.

"Brother!" Al yelled.

Ed fell sideways off envy and doubled over on the ground coughing up blood.

Before Envy had a chance to move, Al grabbed his brother and ran down the alley way. He clapped and put his metal hands forcefully to the ground creating a tough wall between the strong homunculus and them.

By this point Ed had passed out. Al carried him to a nearby house and banged on the door. The house was empty.

He moved onto the next house and did the same. This time an old lady opened the door.

"Please miss he needs help." Al cried

"Oh my, Come in quickly, quickly. You picked the right house mister, my husband is a doctor." The old lady told Al.

They lifted Ed to the couch and the lady went upstairs and fetched her husband, who came down and attended to Ed's stomach.

When the man had finished putting the bandages on Ed, he got up and spoke to Al directly.

"You were very lucky to choose this house. A few more minutes and your brother would have bled to death."

"Is he going to be ok?" Al asked worriedly

"There is a slight chance he will survive. I've stopped his bleeding but he had serious internal damage. We need to get him to central hospital in the next couple of hours. It's the only place that will be able to assess his injuries properly, and the only place that might be able to keep him alive." The doctor said.

* * *

"Damn it." Al cried.

The door opened and Riza Hawkeye walked in with flowers.

"How is he?" She asked

"Not good. The doctor doesn't know if he will make it or not."Al mumbled still looking down.

Hawkeye placed the flowers on the bedside table, then moved next to Al and put her hand on his shoulder. She smiled at him when he looked up.

"Al... I think you should ring Winry." She said.

"Mmm." Al nodded.

Al got up and walked down the hospital corridor heading toward the phones. He didn't like hospitals. It reminded him of death and misery. It seemed like no one was happy in this place.

Al picked up the phone and typed in the number for the Rockbell household – which he knew off by heart.

"Rockbell Automail repairs, Winry speaking." A morose voice on the other end of the receiver spoke.

"Um, hey Winry...I think you should come to central." Al finished, pausing in between the sentence.

"Hmm? Why is something wrong?" Winry asked.

"Well...yeah..It's Ed... he's not well." He told her softly.

Al heard Winry inhale sharply.

"Where are you?" she asked.

"The hospital" Al replied.

"Ill catch the first train...Thanks Al...For ringing me I mean."

"Yeah" Al said hanging up.

Al slouched back to Ed's hospital room and sat down in the plastic chair once again, resting his metal head on the hospital bed. Hawkeye had gone back to her duties in the military. He could hear Ed's slow breathing, it sounded weak and painful.

The next couple of hours went by slowly. Al would have slept it through, if he could sleep at all. Finally a nurse came in, escorting the blond mechanic.

Winry thanked her before turning her attention to her injured friend.

"Give it to me straight Al, I deserve to know. What happened?" she asked looking at all the machinery and bandages keeping her best friend alive.

"We were going back to Resembool, Ed needed a new screw for his automail. But Envy caught up to us. And Ed...well you know Ed...Envy called him short, and they fought each other, except Ed lost..." Al explained. "Envy...he thrust his hand into Ed's stomach...the doctor says he has serious internal damage...they don't know...if they will be able to keep him alive... he hasn't woken up since he passed out...over 5 hours ago...Winry, I should have protected him better...I'm sorry it's my fault."Al mumbled.

"Al you can't blame yourself, don't be stupid." Winry told the younger Elric brother.

"But..." Winry cut him off "Al shut up, you shouldn't be worrying about silly things like that, we need to worry about this drongo here more than anything else right now, ok?"

"Mmm yeah." Al mumbled.

By the third day the small plastic chairs were having an effect on Winry's back, but she wasn't going to complain, or leave Ed for that matter. Riza Hawkeye had offered her a spot on her couch and the choice of a shower until Ed got better. Winry refused the first as she wanted to make the most of the time her and Ed had together even if he was unconscious it was better than nothing, but she took up on the offer of a shower. Hopefully Ed would wake up soon.

Winry rested her elbow on Ed's bed and sighed. She looked at Ed's face with a pained expression. He would have looked peaceful, but the thought of the hole in his stomach and the struggled breaths that were escaping his throat drowned out all the ideas of his peacefulness. It took her a while to realize that there were tears escaping her eyes...What if he never wakes up? What would I do? It wasn't the first time that the thought of suicide crossed her mind. She would do it, if he didn't make it, she would end her own life, because she couldn't live without him.

She bent her head down and rested it on something warm. Her silent tears dripped down the back of his hand and disappeared into the disinfectant smelling hospital sheets. The hand twitched, making Winry jump. She snapped her head up and was greeted by two questioning golden eyes. After almost 4 days, he had woken up...finally. It made Winry cry even more, but out of happiness not grief.

"Hey." His voice croaked.

Winry wrapped her arm around his neck and cried into his shoulder.

"Ed, I thought you were gone, we all did." She blubbered.

"How long has it been?" he asked surprised

"It's the third day today." She told him lifting herself off Ed, worried that she might have hurt him.

"Oh...I'm sorry."Ed apologized.

"Why? For being hurt?" she asked.

"No, for making you wait. Not just for me to wake up, but for every time i leave you and don't return for ages. I'm sorry it must be hard." He answered.

Ed lifted his bandaged hand and put it on Winry's head.

"Thanks for waiting" he said.

"I should go find Al" She mumbled blushing.

She slipped out from under his hand and walked out the ward door.

Al was sitting in the waiting room.

"Winry? Is something wrong?" He worriedly

"What? No? Why would it be?" she asked confused.

"Your crying" Al said simply.

Wiping her eyes blushing again, she told Al that Ed was awake and watched as he sprinted off in the direction he had just come from.

She had always liked Ed the tiniest bit more than Al, not that she was willing to share that with them. But now she understood why. She loved Ed. Sure she had told herself that before, but now it was confirmed. Winry wondered, no Winry hoped that Ed felt the same way.

**See what i mean about traits of both series in there? Like Envy wants too kill Ed, (like in normal FMA) but in brotherhood they want to keep him alive for sacrifice. Also Al can do alchemy without a circle in this...so there is a brotherhood trait.**

**Oh well, if you shrug that off, i hope you enjoyed it**

**Please Review, because you love me. :P  
**


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